Surgical equipment such as endoscopes requires washing and sterilisation each time before use. Existing methods of washing and sterilisation include placing the endoscope in relatively large flat bottomed trays and submerging in sterilisation fluid such as glutaraldehyde, chlorine dioxide, peracetic acid, hydrogen peroxide, ozone or ozonated and super oxidised water. The time period the equipment is in contact with the sterilisation fluid is timed and the liquid drained from the tray by tipping the tray to drain the fluid into a storage tank or down the sink.
A disadvantage with such a method is spillage or splashing of the sterilisation fluids when draining the trays after sterilisation. As the sterilisation fluids are generally corrosive and can be dangerous to health and damaging to the surrounding sterilisation area.
A second disadvantage is the risk of contamination of the equipment after sterilisation via inadvertent touching by the user. Further disadvantages include the inconvenience of manually lifting and tipping trays filled with sterilisation fluid and relatively heavy equipment and the cost associated with using large volumes of sterilisation fluid.
Endoscope sterilisation apparatus are known. Conventional apparatus require the user to know the correct procedure in terms of exposure time of the particular piece of equipment being sterilised to the particular sterilisation fluid needed. In addition such apparatus do not provide for automatic data logging of the previous sterilisation procedures to provide traceability for quality control.
All references, including any patents or patent applications, cited in this specification are hereby incorporated by reference. No admission is made that any reference constititutes prior art. The discussion of the reference states what their authors assert, and the applicants reserve the right to challenge the accuracy and pertiency of the cited documents. It will be clearly understood that, although a number of prior art publications are referred to herein, this reference does not consitute an admission that any of these documents forms parts of the common general knowledge in the art, in New Zealand or in any other country.
It is acknowledged that the term ‘comprise’ may, under varying jurisdictions, be attributed with either an exclusive or an inclusive meaning. For the purpose of this specification, and unless otherwise noted, the term ‘comprise’ shall have an inclusive meaning—i.e. that it will be taken to mean an inclusion of not only the listed components it directly references, but also other non-specified components or elements. This rationale will also be used when the term ‘comprised’ or ‘comprising’ is used in relation to one or more steps in a method or process.
It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoing problems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.
Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example only.